Not only did I not get to send a letter home. I got a lecture about how I ruined a dress before we took off on the trail. A good portion of the journey had been fairly boring at least. We passed a few other towns, but they weren’t that important and didn’t have any bird carriers. I was holding out hope I could send a letter before Traube. But that ended up failing.

  Traube was the first city our route called for. It was past a three-day journey through a few mountains. We were on day three of it, and while I had found the sights interesting at first, I was over it. It was massive, but just earth. Right now, I want a bath! To think I would miss the Malatise Manor bathtubs so much! Heck, I would take a barrel at this point.

  Worst of all, Lady Evelyn was making me drink plain tea every day. Punishment for spitting out in Stechen. Also, she forced me to do mana training with Alyssa every day too. And she wouldn’t help me write any letters. She said that if I didn’t learn enough words to write a letter, then I would just have to wait to send my parents a letter. Awful!

  Lady Evelyn ended up sending Alyssa to watch the road with William occasionally so she could give me some reading lessons. I even learned all the words in the book that Madaline gave me. It was about a princess who had made a deal with a dragon. The princess hated the man her father wanted her to marry. So the dragon captured her.

  The dragon and the princess would play games every day, and they had lots of fun. Occasionally, knights would come to fight the dragon, but they would always lose. After five years, one knight, unlike the others, appeared. He fought with much more force. And he defeated the dragon as he went to slay it. The princess jumped in front to protect her friend.

  The knight tossed his helmet to ask the princess why. The princess was shocked to see that the knight was the man she was supposed to marry. He seemed so different. Apparently, he had trained long and hard to save her. They fell in love and got married, with the dragon watching over them and their descendants.

  I smiled thinking about it. I could read the entire thing without help. The story seemed strange to me. Apparently, the dragon is a member of the chimera race. Alyssa loved this story, apparently. She was fascinated with dragons. I found the idea of them to be scarier than anything else. Tall lizards that could swallow a wagon in one bite? No, thank you!

  I yawned as I stretched and put the book away. It had been over a week of traveling. So I had managed three letters all on my own, but it had left me pretty drained.

  “Let’s stop for rations,” Lady Evelyn said.

  I held my smile before I groaned on the inside. That meant tea. Tea without sugar or milk was so gross. I was pretty sure I would never spit it out again! I was also pretty sick of rations. We had enough food for maybe one more proper meal, but her suggesting rations now meant she thought we would likely need to eat quickly if we were gonna make it to the city today.

  Admittedly, I wanted a bath way more than anything else. Zureinigen had become a lifesaver, but it could only do so much. Removing the dirt just wasn’t the same as soaking in warm water.

  Rations only needed boiled water, so they were simple. Apparently, they were normally made with a dough, but Lady Evelyn made them special with a foreign grain called rice. Alyssa and William both considered it a rare treat. I wasn’t too fond of it myself.

  I was served tea while the rations warmed up. I took a sip and began curling my toes. It was my personal trick to keep my facial expression under control. “Lovely,” I said through my forced smile.

  “Good,” Lady Evelyn said.

  I let out a purely internal sigh. That was hard. This tea was the grossest yet. All the tea was gross and bitter. But this tasted like it was steeped in dirty socks. I was gagging on the inside, but I kept sipping it. Any excuse for failure, and she’d just keep up this training. I wanted to be so done with it!

  I knew it wasn’t just in my head, because William stopped taking tea after it was gross for a few days. Alyssa began refusing it yesterday. How much further down can it go in quality! This has to be the bottom right?

  If there was any benefit to this situation, I suppose that the rations were like a breath of fresh air and a homemade steak after those rations. Ugh.

  Alyssa set her bowl down. Unlike her, since she liked rice the most. She drew her sword. “I sense something.”

  A chill went up my spine. “Like, magic? Or-”

  “Shh,” Lady Evelyn said.

  With all of us not moving, the eerie quiet of our location became even more apparent.

  Alyassa pointed towards a small hill before the mountain trail. I didn’t sense anything, but I began to hear something—little pitter-patters. Like… footsteps, but there were lots of them. Fast too.

  It didn’t take long for the source to reveal itself—a wolf. I hadn’t seen these two fight yet, but I wasn’t really concerned with them taking on a single wolf. Even my Father-

  It wasn’t just one. More just kept lining up next to it—ten, maybe fifteen, or maybe even twenty. I squeezed Lady Evelyn. “What do we do now?”

  She patted my head. “Not to worry. Just stay near me.”

  The driver hopped into the carriage, and I was about to follow him when Lady Evelyn grabbed my hand.

  “But won’t it be safer?” I asked.

  “Not now,” she said as she raised her hand. “Beschuss!” A tiny yellow dot launched from her hand quickly towards the group of wolves before it bloomed out with a thunderous roar. Heat washed over me as dust was kicked in the air.

  That was insane! All the wolves were blown away by it, but it didn’t take long for the ones not right next to the impact to charge. William jumped in front to intercept the left side of them. Slashing into one with his sword.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Schnittsturm!” Alyssa shouted with her hand outstretched. But nothing was-

  A wolf’s nose broke as it was repelled backwards. Yikes, so the spell was invisible? She then ran towards us but stopped at a point to our right. As the wolves approached, she began stabbing at them.

  But that left three that were coming right at us. I tightened my grip on Lady Evelyn.

  “I need my arm,” she said while looking forward.

  Gah! I hated it, but I relented and let go. She took a few steps forward and leaned like she was going to punch, but instead grabbed the wolf's tail and swung it into a second wolf. She pointed her hand at the third, and I got nervous if she was gonna do the same spell. I put my fingers in my ears.

  “K?figschnittsturm!” She shouted. The wolf was suddenly suspended in the air, and cuts began appearing all over its body. She jumped back towards me. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I held her as soon as she got close.

  She glanced to the side and put her hand out. “Schnittsturm!”

  That was the same spell Alyssa cast. I noticed a wolf going for the horse, but… it suddenly just fell apart, as if cut in half. I instantly felt sick seeing it.

  “Is all good, my Lady?” Alyssa asked as she flicked her blade, causing blood to fall to the ground. I realized all the wolves were dead, and William was walking back towards us at a bit of a slower pace.

  “Let us worry about cleaning up the area first,” Lady Evelyn said, tapping on the carriage door. “Safe. Help us collect the wolves.”

  “Collect the wolves?” I asked. There were twenty of them.

  She nodded. “We can’t leave them like this. They will draw in more predators; the next carriage might not be as well guarded. Burning them would be an option, but it is a waste of meat when we are so close to town. Plus, the difference in burning and bagging isn’t much.”

  The coachman began grabbing a net that he was hooking up to the back of the carriage. Oh! He is gonna hang them off the back. Clever! William got a blanket to wrap up the wolves.

  “Lady Julia, you should use Zureinigen on the bloody spots. Don’t push yourself if you begin to feel tired, though.”

  “Okay,” I said. There was blood everywhere. I decided to go to the spots where William had already moved a wolf. I had never cast this spell back to back so many times, but I didn’t feel anything notable even from multiple casts. I glanced over to where the exploded wolf was and frowned. That was going to be gross.

  “You won’t need to do that. We aren’t taking the super-damaged ones. She will burn them,” William said.

  “What kind of spell was that? It was so intense.”

  He nodded. “Is high-tier magic. Not something either Alyssa or I can use yet. It is to be expected of the Platinum Lady, though.”

  “Platinum Lady?” I asked.

  “You don’t know? She-”

  “Enough yapping! I want to get out of here in five minutes,” Lady Evelyn shouted from over to where the destroyed wolf parts were. Suddenly, I felt the heat from the fires she was making. How was she doing that so quickly?

  Before I even thought to ask, my nose was assaulted by a foul odor. “Oh gods, what is that?”

  She walked towards me. “A blend of monster repellent. This should prevent any more animals from coming here until the wolf parts are burned to dust. I had Alyssa spread it.”

  William loaded the huge rolled-up blanket onto the back of the carriage, and then they pulled the net over it to pin it in place.

  Lady Evelyn got to the door. “Let's go. I still want to reach Traube today.”

  We all got in without delay. Once back on the road, I couldn’t help but wonder about what William said. “So, what is the Platinum Lady?”

  “It was a nickname I had a long time ago. It doesn’t really matter anymore,” Lady Evelyn said.

  “But, that isn’t true! When I realized you were that Evelyn. I was quite excited to see what I could learn from you,” Alyssa said, her eyes showing her joy.

  “That Evelyn?” I asked.

  Lady Evelyn shook her head while pressing her hand against her temple. “How embarrassing. One day, you girls are going to have people reciting things to you from what feels like ancient history.”

  Alyssa looked at me. “Lady Evelyn was the first holder of the platinum flower! Oh, I suppose this is your first time going to the capital, right?”

  I nodded.

  “The platinum flower is a reward for having the best record in all four main courses at the Royal Academy! The best possible achievement.”

  I looked at Lady Evelyn. She wasn’t looking back at either of us. I suppose she was tuning out this part of our chat. But she was the best? I smiled. Yeah. I could believe that.

  “So what is the academy like?” I asked.

  Alyssa looked away for a second. “I’m-”

  “It is fine,” Lady Evelyn said. “I've been meaning to tell her anyhow.”

  “Oh, well, in that case. We have four core subjects. Wizard, knight, academia, and etiquette.”

  “Wizard?” I asked.

  “It is where you learn advanced spells, like the kind Lady Evelyn used back there,” Alyssa said.

  I looked to Lady Evelyn. “So what classes do you think I will be taking?”

  “Preferably all of them, but I have a feeling convincing you to take the knight course will be a struggle,” she paused and finally looked back at me. “Preferably, you’d earn your own platinum flower. But that might be a bit much to ask.”

  “A bit? Only three have ever done it, and that number includes you!” Alyssa said.

  Crap. This was going to suck. From what I understood, she wanted me to go to the academy in a few months. I could barely read. And she was hoping I would get perfect scores? I shivered at the idea of how many pinches she might give me during my training or if I failed. I needed to distract myself from that. Plus, I was curious about this Platinum Lady thing.

  “So, how does the Platinum Lady come into this?” I asked.

  “It was my adventuring handle,” Lady Evelyn said. “Adventuring is basically just traveling, and killing monsters for people, along with some other things.”

  “The stories say you even slayed a dragon!” Alyssa said with her hands clasped.

  Lady Evelyn giggled. “That never happened. Just a nest of wyverns. But that was a long time ago. Anlage doesn’t have dragons. Even the wyverns came from the northern countries.”

  “Wyverns in a group are equally impressive!” Alyssa added.

  “Uh, so what is that?” I asked. I didn’t even wanna try repeating it.

  “Think, lizard bird, but much weaker than a dragon, about Or like, think of a bird with a wingspan the size of both of us, with our hands out to the size standing next to each other. And a nest can be as many as thirty! Was it thirty?” Alssya asked.

  “It was over thirty years ago, I don’t remember that,” she said, shaking her head.

  I think I saw a bit of a flush in Lady Evelyn’s cheeks. If I thought about it for a second, it was easy to realize I didn’t know anything about her. She was old enough to be my grandmother. Not to mention the way she fought. She swung a wolf around like it was a weapon. Insanity. That is even before the magic. I hope I can learn more about her as we spend time together.